The present invention is related generally to sequencing devices, and more particularly to the sequencing technique with automated active port detection and sequencing.
Conventionally, sequencing circuits typically include a relatively small number of ports (e.g. 1–5 ports) for sequencing attached wires according to a predefined sequence. If more wires are needed to be sequenced, then two or more conventional sequencing units may be serially combined to produce a system which is able sequence the desired number of wires. For this reason, conventional sequencers having a relatively large number of sequencing ports (e.g. more than 5) are uncommon, since is it cheaper to combine a few smaller sequencing units than to manufacture a large sequencing unit.
One problem with conventional sequencing units is that they are not able to perform automatic wire detection. Without wire-detection, the device controlling the wires would produce “blanks” in the patterns, or points in the sequence where no wires are connected, when the sequencer attempts to turn on those wires. Another problem with conventional sequencing devices relates to zero-crossing issues, as described in greater detail in the Detailed Description Section of this application.
Accordingly, it will be appreciated that there exists a present need to improve upon conventional sequencing device designs in order to provide improved features and advantages.